New Legends

With such a dynamic story set in a largely unique setting that can only be described as a Cyberpunk China – mixing the ultra high tech futuristic and ancient Imperial technology, architecture and weapons into something quite different that actually works. The setting is kind of like the 80s Cult TV series Monkey, but with more actual violence and a healthy dose of high tech weaponry thrown into the mix. It sounded like a real winner…

If only they could have pulled it off!

It is not the story that makes the game fail, after all what could be better than romping your way through China armed to your teeth in a mission of revenge against a Demon Dictator and his five elemental siblings (Earth, Air, Water, Metal and Fire)? The game fails because it feels half finished.

It feels form the outset that it has been rushed for a quick release, when it could have done with another 3 – 6 months development and testing. The game is playable enough, with some quite innovative features, such as allowing you to wield virtually any combination of weapons (with a different button controlling each hand). The weapon combinations allow for some interesting combos allowing you to pull off some moves that are reminiscent of those performed by the likes of Jackie Chan and Jet Li in Hong Kong Cinema the game clearly takes much of its inspiration from.

The first thing that starts to get on your nerves is that there seems to be hundreds of doors in the game that do not open, making the apparent freedom to roam the world suddenly seem quite false and consequently very linear. On numerous occasions you will for example: burst into a city square surrounded by huge, imposing buildings and get the feeling that you have numerous options of where you can go next. In the end though there will only be the road that leads out of the other side and the 8 door that surround you are really just decoration and about as much use as walls. This proves quite irritating if you are being chased by five large men and a tank and need somewhere to hide!!!

Even this ‘doors are walls’ rule is not set in stone though – as you will suddenly reach a part of the game where you will get stuck because there is seemingly nowhere you can go. After much walking round and round you will discover that you either had to press a switch that did not look like a switch or, more irritatingly - you have to open one of the many doors that looks like all the others you can’t open!!!

There are also some levels that are really irritating as they rely very little on skill at all – such as running and jumping down a mountain path followed by a landslide. At any point falling boulders can crush you to mush and it is with little more than luck that will see you will succeed. Luckily these levels are few and far between - but really should not have been there in the first place.

Saving the game is also not a well thought out as it might be as you can only save at the end of a given level. This is not in any way unique to this game though, as many console games seem to employ a checkpoint system for saving in order to prolong the game’s length. This of course means that if you are unable to complete a section you have to go back to the start of the section again and again until you do. Further into the game this can get infuriating, especially when you have just fought through dozens of foot soldiers and have gone through several cut-sequences before meeting one of the Elemental – Demon bosses. The chances are that the boss will defeat you the first few times as you figure out best to fight them – and it just doesn’t seem right that you have to fight through all the rubbish before again before you can have another go. I actually gave up after experiencing this for the umpteenth time and decided that completing the game just wasn’t worth the frustration of doing it.

Perhaps the most irritating thing of all though is the bugs in the game. As I mentioned at the very beginning of this review that the game felt unfinished, this is where it really shows. At several points in the game you can be doing very well and suddenly you will jump through the back of a chair, or into a wall or door and not be able to move. The only way out seems to be going back to your last save and trying again – which is so, so irritating if it happens just after you have got past a really tricky bit and are just trying to reach that next save point. These type of bugs are unusual in Xbox releases as Microsoft will normally not allow anything to go on sale in this state. Somehow New Legends slipped through the net…

If only it had been finished and had its all too rough edges ironed out. A playable game in the setting could easily have been worth 4/5. Unfortunately it only makes a 2/5. Worth a look but ultimately I would say try before you buy.